Vanity Fair

A veces concibo mi blog como un blog temático sobre la vanidad, ya sea a modo de ejemplo práctico, o quizá como una parodia de lo que sería ese blog temático. Tenga o no bien calibrado el tono, lo que sí es cierto es que antes de Vanity Fea estuvo la famosa revista Vanity Fair, también ella supuestamente autoirónica en su título; y antes de ella la desilusionada novela de William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, y varios estratos de intertextualidad palimpséstica por debajo, está  The Pilgrim's Progress, el relato religioso alegórico de John Bunyan—y la Feria de las Vanidades por la que pasan sus peregrinos.

{215} Then I saw in my dream, that when they were got out of the wilderness, they presently saw a town before them, and the name of that town is Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept, called Vanity Fair: it is kept all the year long. It beareth the name of Vanity Fair because the town where it is kept is lighter than vanity; and, also because all that is there sold, or that cometh thither, is vanity. As is the saying of the wise, "all that cometh is vanity." [Eccl. 1; 2:11,17; 11:8; Isa. 11:17]

{216} This fair is no new-erected business, but a thing of ancient standing; I will show you the original of it.

Almost five thousand years agone, there were pilgrims walking to the Celestial City, as these two honest persons are: and Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion, with their companions, perceiving by the path that the pilgrims made, that their way to the city lay through this town of Vanity, they contrived here to set up a fair; a fair wherein, should be sold all sorts of vanity, and that it should last all the year long: therefore at this fair are all such merchandise sold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts, as whores, bawds, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and what not.

And, moreover, at this fair there is at all times to be seen juggling cheats, games, plays, fools, apes, knaves, and rogues, and that of every kind.

Here are to be seen, too, and that for nothing, thefts, murders, adulteries, false swearers, and that of a blood-red colour.

{217} And as in other fairs of less moment, there are the several rows and streets, under their proper names, where such and such wares are vended; so here likewise you have the proper places, rows, streets, (viz. countries and kingdoms), where the wares of this fair are soonest to be found. Here is the Britain Row, the French Row, the Italian Row, the Spanish Row, the German Row, where several sorts of vanities are to be sold. But, as in other fairs, some one commodity is as the chief of all the fair, so the ware of Rome and her merchandise is greatly promoted in this fair; only our English nation, with some others, have taken a dislike thereat.

{218} Now, as I said, the way to the Celestial City lies just through this town where this lusty fair is kept; and he that will go to the city, and yet not go through this town, must needs go out of the world. [1 Cor. 5:10] The Prince of princes himself, when here, went through this town to his own country, and that upon a fair day too; yea, and as I think, it was Beelzebub, the chief lord of this fair, that invited him to buy of his vanities; yea, would have made him lord of the fair, would he but have done him reverence as he went through the town. [Matt. 4:8, Luke 4:5-7] Yea, because he was such a person of honour, Beelzebub had him from street to street, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a little time, that he might, if possible, allure the Blessed One to cheapen and buy some of his vanities; but he had no mind to the merchandise, and therefore left the town, without laying out so much as one farthing upon these vanities. This fair, therefore, is an ancient thing, of long standing, and a very great fair.

{219} Now these pilgrims, as I said, must needs go through this fair. Well, so they did: but, behold, even as they entered into the fair, all the people in the fair were moved, and the town itself as it were in a hubbub about them; and that for several reasons: for--

{220} First, The pilgrims were clothed with such kind of raiment as was diverse from the raiment of any that traded in that fair. The people, therefore, of the fair, made a great gazing upon them: some said they were fools, some they were bedlams, and some they are outlandish men. [1 Cor. 2:7-8]

{221} Secondly, And as they wondered at their apparel, so they did likewise at their speech; for few could understand what they said; they naturally spoke the language of Canaan, but they that kept the fair were the men of this world; so that, from one end of the fair to the other, they seemed barbarians each to the other.

{222} Thirdly, But that which did not a little amuse the merchandisers was, that these pilgrims set very light by all their wares; they cared not so much as to look upon them; and if they called upon them to buy, they would put their fingers in their ears, and cry, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and look upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic was in heaven. [Ps. 119:37, Phil. 3:19-20]

{223} One chanced mockingly, beholding the carriage of the men, to say unto them, What will ye buy? But they, looking gravely upon him, answered, "We buy the truth." [Prov. 23:23] At that there was an occasion taken to despise the men the more; some mocking, some taunting, some speaking reproachfully, and some calling upon others to smite them. At last things came to a hubbub and great stir in the fair, insomuch that all order was confounded. Now was word presently brought to the great one of the fair, who quickly came down, and deputed some of his most trusty friends to take these men into examination, about whom the fair was almost overturned. So the men were brought to examination; and they that sat upon them, asked them whence they came, whither they went, and what they did there, in such an unusual garb? The men told them that they were pilgrims and strangers in the world, and that they were going to their own country, which was the heavenly Jerusalem, [Heb. 11:13-16] and that they had given no occasion to the men of the town, nor yet to the merchandisers, thus to abuse them, and to let them in their journey, except it was for that, when one asked them what they would buy, they said they would buy the truth. But they that were appointed to examine them did not believe them to be any other than bedlams and mad, or else such as came to put all things into a confusion in the fair. Therefore they took them and beat them, and besmeared them with dirt, and then put them into the cage, that they might be made a spectacle to all the men of the fair.

Mucho recuerda Pilgrim's Progress, en algunos sentidos, a los paisajes alegóricos de El Criticón—del coetáneo de Bunyan, Baltasar Gracián. Barroco y católico Gracián, pero la predicación de fondo está igualmente distante de las vanidades del mundo. En Gracián: Barroco y Modernidad, observa Miguel Almoguera que el objeto de la crítica de El Criticón es "un modelo de hombre que se hace a sí mismo en un mundo en el que lo accidental deviene esencial. En un sentido spinosista, podría decirse que la sustancia se reduce al modo. En un modo de continuada creación, la manera de ser se convierte en el mismo ser del hombre" (223). El hombre como ser emergente, autocreativo, y dado a enfrascarse en la vanidad y liviandad de sus creaciones, en la impresentable levedad del ser. La mala conciencia ante esta naturaleza humana se articula desde el más allá imaginario—apoyando la palanca de la crítica en un mundo fuera del mundo... —es la utilidad que tiene el más allá, mundo sustancial y sólido (paradójicamente, el más etéreo) donde asientan su prédica tanto Bunyan como Gracián.

Y así encontramos en El Criticón, cómo no, el pasaje paralelo a la Feria de las Vanidades de Bunyan: la feria de todo el Mundo (Crisi dezimatercia), "publicada para aquel grande emporio que divide los amenos prados de la juventud de las ásperas montañas de la edad varonil, y donde de una y otra parte acudían ríos de gentes, unos a vender, otros a comprar, y otros a estarse a la mira, como más cuerdos" (266). Allí las mercancías son todas las cualidades, valores y actividades humanas—las lenguas o el silencio, la virtud o la libertad, la flema o la sabiduría, la inmortalidad o la fama...

"Hasta el mismo vender hallaron que se feriaba, porque saber uno vender sus cosas vale mucho, que ya no se estiman por lo que son, sino por lo que parecen; los más de los hombres ven y oyen con ojos y oídos prestados, viven de información de ageno gusto y juicio" (275).

Habría que ver a Gracián paseándose por las Bolsas hoy, por nuestra campaña electoral en la bancarrota, por eBay, por las redes sociales o por el barullo electrónico de la Web—si es que el siglo XVII lo veía así, está claro el juicio que le merecería nuestra postmodernidad acelerada y light. Más de lo mismo, sin duda. Ya lo decía Zapatero, el perito en nubes—que la Tierra es del viento...

Pero advirtieron había otra botica llena de redomas vacías, cajas desiertas, y con todo esso, muy embaraçada de gente y de ruido. A este reclamo acudió luego Andrenio, preguntó qué se vendía allí, porque no se veía cosa, y respondiéronle que vientos, aire, y aun menos.
—¿Y hay quién lo compre?
—Y quien gasta en ello todas sus rentas. Aquella caja está llena de lisonjas, que se pagan muy bien; en aquella redoma hay palabras que se estiman mucho; aquel bote es de favores, de que se pagan no pocos, aquella arca grande está rellena de mentiras, que se despachan harto mejor que las verdades, y más las que se pueden mantener por tres días, y en tempo de guerra, dize el italiano, bugía como terra.
—¿Hay tal cosa? —ponderaba Critilo—. ¡Que haya quien compre el aire y se pague dél!
—¿Desso os espantáis? —les dixeron—. Pues en el mundo ¿qué hay sino viento? El mismo hombre, quitadle el aire y veréis lo que queda. Aun menos que aire se vende aquí, y muy bien que se paga. (278)

Más abajo, más abajo, siguiendo la pista de la vanidad detrás de la vanidad, nos encontramos con el Eclesiastés.

All Is Vanity

1     The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

2     Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.    

 

3     What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?

4     One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.

5     The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.

6     The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.

7     All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full: unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.

8     All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

9     The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

10     Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

11     There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

 
And of reading many books there is no end.

Like a Bubble

 

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